Date Title & Details Speaker Listen Download
11/09/2025
Right Effort

Kakumyo speaks about unattached effort. How do we manage the details of life with buoyancy?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe
11/05/2025
Foundational Teachings – Class 7

Wednesday night classes focus on Buddhist teaching, from its early stages in India through its expression in Soto Zen. This annual class explores topics such as the Buddha’s life, the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path, Karma and Rebirth, Dependent Origination, the Paramitas and other aspirational practices, as well as contributions from some of our important Zen ancestors, including Dogen. See the Syllabus. The Foundational Teachings classes are a seminary requirement and prerequisite for many other seminary classes.

Categories: Wednesday Classes

Reiju Nelsen, Ko’in Newsom
11/02/2025
A Single Piece of Emptiness

As we celebrate Founders’ Day, we consider the lives of three people whose work and practice built the temple: Keido Chisan, Jiyu Kennett, and Kyogen Carlson.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
10/19/2025
In a Dream, Expressing a Dream

Guest Teacher Koji Shinei Alison offers a dharma talk. The dream before reality, the nightmare before tragedy, fright before the monster, nausea before the fall. The world is a dream, imagined. The power of the archetype is numinous, suggestive; it hints, and alludes yet, can never be thoroughly known. Archetypes lift us out of the limited space of brute, merely personal reality, encouraging the difficult inner work, encouraging a renewed relationship with the 10,000 beautiful things and, to bring great happiness.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Koji Shinei Alison
10/15/2025
Foundational Teachings Class 6

Wednesday night classes focus on Buddhist teaching, from its early stages in India through its expression in Soto Zen. This annual class explores topics such as the Buddha’s life, the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path, Karma and Rebirth, Dependent Origination, the Paramitas and other aspirational practices, as well as contributions from some of our important Zen ancestors, including Dogen. See the Syllabus. The Foundational Teachings classes are a seminary requirement and prerequisite for many other seminary classes.

Categories: Wednesday Classes

Reiju Nelsen, Ko’in Newsom
10/12/2025
Fall Sangha Forum

Twice a year, the sangha has an opportunity to hear from our governing bodies and to ask questions and give feedback. The Sangha Forum takes the place of a dharma talk. The Board of Directors sponsors the Fall forum and gives updates. The Dharma Council also presents updates.

Categories: Sangha Forum

Reiju Nelsen, Ko’in Newsom
10/08/2025
Foundational Teachings – Class 5

Wednesday night classes focus on Buddhist teaching, from its early stages in India through its expression in Soto Zen. This annual class explores topics such as the Buddha’s life, the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path, Karma and Rebirth, Dependent Origination, the Paramitas and other aspirational practices, as well as contributions from some of our important Zen ancestors, including Dogen. See the Syllabus. The Foundational Teachings classes are a seminary requirement and prerequisite for many other seminary classes.

Categories: Wednesday Classes

Reiju Nelsen, Ko’in Newsom
10/05/2025
On Politics

Kakumyo pulls from the Pali canon in exploring what the Buddha saw as an appropriate response to political questions. He also examines how that might affect us individually and as a collective.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe
10/01/2025
Foundational Teachings – Class 4

Wednesday night classes focus on Buddhist teaching, from its early stages in India through its expression in Soto Zen. This annual class explores topics such as the Buddha’s life, the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path, Karma and Rebirth, Dependent Origination, the Paramitas and other aspirational practices, as well as contributions from some of our important Zen ancestors, including Dogen. See the Syllabus. The Foundational Teachings classes are a seminary requirement and prerequisite for many other seminary classes.

Categories: Wednesday Classes

Reiju Nelsen, Ko’in Newsom
09/28/2025
Hua-Yen and Zen Practice

Fumyo’s dharma talk considers aspects of the Hua Yen world view and how it is expressed in our Zen practices.

The Hua Yen system of thinking arose from the commentaries of Chinese scholars studying the Avatamsaka Sutra. These perspectives provide the philosophical bedrock for Zen and have influenced Zen practices through the ages to this day.

As Zen practitioners, how we experience our worlds and how we respond to all the interdependent relationships within them are infused with a Hua Yen world view.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Rick Fumyo Mishaga
09/24/2025
Foundational Teachings – Class 3

Wednesday night classes focus on Buddhist teaching, from its early stages in India through its expression in Soto Zen. This annual class explores topics such as the Buddha’s life, the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path, Karma and Rebirth, Dependent Origination, the Paramitas and other aspirational practices, as well as contributions from some of our important Zen ancestors, including Dogen. See the Syllabus. The Foundational Teachings classes are a seminary requirement and prerequisite for many other seminary classes.

Categories: Wednesday Classes

Reiju Nelsen, Ko’in Newsom
09/21/2025
Why Can’t Clear-Eyed Bodhisattvas Sever the Red Thread

The talk explores this question that was offered to us by Zen Master Songyuan Chongyue in the late 12th Century. The red thread grabs us at once in a visceral way. It represents our deepest human nature with all of its passion, desires, vulnerabilities. To become intimate with the red thread is the path of the bodhisattva. This koan leads us to the very heart of our practice.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Flying Fish Murphy
09/17/2025
Foundational Teachings – Class 2

This annual class explores topics such as the Buddha’s life, the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path, Karma and Rebirth, Dependent Origination, the Paramitas and other aspirational practices, as well as contributions from some of our important Zen ancestors, including Dogen. See the Syllabus. The Foundational Teachings classes are a seminary requirement and prerequisite for many other seminary classes.

Categories: Wednesday Classes

Reiju Nelsen, Ko’in Newsom
09/14/2025
Hatred

I feel it. You feel it, too. How do we work with such a powerful experience?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
09/07/2025
Doing Nothing

Zonnyo explores the theme of “doing nothing” from the perspective of Ch’an Master Ma-Tsu and his disciples. What is the wisdom of non-action and non-seeking? And how do we know when we should act?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Zonnyo Riger
08/31/2025
Our Ascetic Inheritance

Zen has a reputation for being tough, maybe even scary. Once we’ve been around for a while, we see through some of that. In this talk Kakumyo explores the karma of Zen’s ascetic tendencies and discusses how we practice with it today.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe
08/24/2025
The Five Remembrances

Shin’yu considers the Five Remembrances and what they can offer us.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Shin’yu Vitells
08/17/2025
Dharma Talk by Jyoshin

Categories: Dharma Talks

Jyoshin Clay
08/10/2025
Immediacy

Categories: Dharma Talks

Mike Gyoshi Kaplan
08/03/2025
The True Dharma Appears of Itself

We often recite these words but what do they really mean? What is the “it” in “itself?”

Categories: Dharma Talks

Daigai Filbert
07/27/2025
Nine Times, Many Times

Suzuki said, “Sometimes we bow to dogs and cats.” Why is the bow considered an act of generosity? Why is bowing considered an act of generosity?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
07/20/2025
Zazen of the Body

Roshi Daizui once said “Spiritual transformation is transformation of the body.” What if he’s right? Let’s discuss.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Robert Reian Glass
07/13/2025
The Great Matter

Two weeks ago, Zonnyo did her Shuso Hossen ceremony, choosing as her verse one from Dogen’s fascicle “Juki”. It affirmed living-and-dying, going-and-coming, and the turning from one moment to the next. That afternoon, Genko got word of the sudden death of a family member. She has been processing that over the last two weeks. In this talk, she shares some of her process and insights and looks at the turning of the year and other cycles.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Genko Rainwater
07/06/2025
Skill in Nonself

Kakumyo explores some of the practical ramifications of anatta, the Buddhist teaching of how nothing has an inherent, continuous selfhood.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe
06/22/2025
Dharma Talk by Jyoshin

Jyoshin talks about Bodhisattva action.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Jyoshin Clay
06/15/2025
Dharma Talk by Kakumyo

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe
06/11/2025
In This Body, In This Lifetime

This book discussion was led by nun Esho Sudan who has edited a new book In This Body, In This Lifetime: Awakening Stories of Japanese Soto Zen Women, from students of Sozen Nagasawa Ni-Roshi. Born in 1888, Sozen Nagasawa Roshi was a pioneering figure in Japanese Zen Buddhism, dedicating her life to supporting and empowering women practitioners. Overcoming significant societal barriers, she became an abbess, trained hundreds of students, and championed equal rights for nuns. Click here to read more.

Categories: Wednesday Classes

Esho Sudan
06/08/2025
The Third Position

What if we don’t have to take sides?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
06/01/2025
Spoon and Chopsticks

Genko relates a seemingly trivial experience with oryoki and explores issues around form, habit energy, ritual, and resistance.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Genko Rainwater
05/28/2025
Paramitas Class 5

Jiko teaches a series of classes on the Paramitas: generosity (dana), morality (sila), patience (ksanti), diligence (virya), meditation (dhyana), wisdom (prajna), skillful means (upaya), vow (pranidhana), spiritual power (bala), and knowledge (jnana).

Categories: Wednesday Classes

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
05/25/2025
The Heart Sutra in the Messiness of our Lives

Categories: Wednesday Classes

Shin’yu Vitells
05/21/2025
Paramitas Class 4

Jiko teaches a series of classes on the Paramitas: generosity (dana), morality (sila), patience (ksanti), diligence (virya), meditation (dhyana), wisdom (prajna), skillful means (upaya), vow (pranidhana), spiritual power (bala), and knowledge (jnana).

Categories: Wednesday Classes

Todd Tsuho Sattersten
Date Title & Details Speaker Listen Download

Dharma Rain Newsletter Signup

[ctct form="6448"]